Issue Date: 10/26/09
Video game 'Brutal Legend' suffers from genre confusion
2.5 stars out of 4
By Nigel Harris
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The story is about Eddie Riggs, the best roadie to have ever lived. Eddie is cast into another dimension - and awakes in a heavy metal fan's dream world. Eddie decides he will do battle with all others to make sure that metal prevails.
The weapons of choice: an ax and a guitar, for slashing and performing face-melting metal solos.
Eddie wields his ax against General Lionwhyte, the principle villan, who represents all that is glam rock and Doviculus.
Eddie is not alone in his quest; he joins up with Lars Halford and his small rebellion to stop the forces or hair-metal.
Beginning as a hack-and-slash action adventure game, "Legend" features standard combat and copious amounts of blood.
Part-way through the campaign, the mechanics of the game shift from a simple action control scheme to a challenging real-time strategy system. In these sections of the game Eddie commands a heavy metal army.
Eddie has to manage a steady flow of fans, the games form of resource management, in order to summon units. Though he tries to direct his forces, but they never seem to go where you want them to.
The challenge doesn't necessarily come from the game play itself, so much as the controls and an awkward camera.
The game also has a lot of driving sequences in it, and although the game is mostly medieval, it takes the liberty of providing you with a hot rod to mob around in.
The voice cast in "Brütal Legend" is incredible. Eddie is voiced by Jack Black, with appearances from other famous metal musicians including the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osborne.
Most of the dialogue in the game is very clever and well-written and doesn't have the problem of being too specific, so players don't have to have a wide knowledge of the history of metal.
To offset some of "Legends" mature content, each cinematic cutscene offers the player an option to cull outcoarse language or the game's signature gore. Including the content filter opens up "Brütal Legend" to a youger market. Perhaps other game developers should take their lead.
The game's soundtrack is easily one of its strong points. The music in "Brütal Legend" really sets the atmosphere of a heavy metal world and covers a wide variety within the metal genre, having something that everyone into metal can enjoy.
The game's visuals are stunning. The characters are easily identifiable as Tim Schafer's creations but they feel almost as if they have a Tim Burton spin on them. The world, however, seems a bit prohibitively small. Despite the impressive graphics, there are also game play and cutscene inconsistancies, though they are minor issues.
"Brütal Legend" teeters on the rent-or-buy line. It is definitely a humorous game with some cool concepts, but the genre incongruity really takes away from the overall experience.
Still, the game is worth checking out if only to get a couple laughs.
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